Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/36

6 ever, came suddenly to a standstill on the revival of Hinduism in Bengal. Buddhist works were carried by the vanquished exponents of that faith to Nepal and Burma; and all traces of the creed, which was once ascendant in the country, were obliterated there. Whatever may be urged in favour of the theory of "the gradual, almost insensible, assimilation of Buddhism to Hinduism" there can be no doubt that Buddhism was often suppressed in India by a storm of Brahmanic persecution. The following extract from Çankara-Vijaya regarding King Sudhanvā will show the ruthless manner in which the Buddhists were sometimes persecuted:—

"দুষ্টমতাবলম্বিনঃ বৌদ্ধান্ জৈনানসংখ্যাতান্ রাজমুখ্যাননেকবিদ্যাপ্রসঙ্গৈর্নির্জিত্য তেষাং শীর্ষাণি পরশুভিশ্ছিত্বা বহুষু উদুখলেষু নিক্ষিপ্য কটভ্রমর্ণৈশ্চূর্ণীকৃত্য চৈবং দুষ্টমতধ্বংসমাচরন্ নির্ভয়ো বর্ত্ততে।"

"Many of the chief princes, professing the wicked doctrines of the Buddhist and the Jain religions, were vanquished in various scholarly controversies. Their heads were then cut off with axes, thrown into mortars, and broken to pieces (reduced to powder) by means of pestles. So these wicked doctrines were thoroughly annihilated, and the country made free from danger."

With the decadence of the power of the Buddhist priests, who in their zeal to popularize their creed, had not considered the Vernacular of Bengal as an unworthy medium for propagating their religious views, Bengali lost the patronage which it had secured of the lettered men of the country; and its future seemed dismal and uncheerful. We have shown that the form of Prākrita prevalent in Bengal was in disfavour with the Sanskritic school which gave it a contemptuous epithet. Sanskrit scholars,